At a recent meeting of East Dunbartonshire's Education Committee it was agreed to undertake a consultation on changes to its schools admission policy and transfer arrangements of pupils from primary to secondary schools.
The consultation will run from Monday 28 October to Friday 6 December and seeks to gather the views of parents of pupils living in East Dunbartonshire who currently attend or have not yet started school and parents of pupils attending established specialist provision in East Dunbartonshire.
This includes the Music School of Douglas Academy, Gaelic Medium schools and the Football Academies in St Ninian’s High School and Boclair Academy.
In recent years a number of schools in East Dunbartonshire have had high occupancy levels due to the demand in the school’s catchment area, through placing requests from parents in other areas in East Dunbartonshire and from parents living in neighbouring local authority areas.
Roll projections for a small number of schools show there is a risk that a school may be oversubscribed for catchment pupils when the allocation of places is carried out in April each year.
The Council is proposing to have a clear procedure in place to manage this effectively which will involve changes to admissions policies for primary and secondary schools and transfer arrangements for pupils going from primary to secondary school.
Any changes to the catchment area of a school, or a proposed change to the admissions arrangements, requires the Council to carry out a formal statutory consultation as detailed in the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010.
Consultees will be asked for their views on proposed changes to:
- The admission arrangements, including Primary 1 and a during a school session
- The arrangements for the transfer of pupils from a primary school to a secondary school
- The arrangements for admission to the Educational Specialist Provision within East Dunbartonshire
It is proposed that these changes will take effect for admissions from Session 2020/2021.
Councillor Jim Goodall, Convener of the Education Committee said, “East Dunbartonshire Council is committed to ensuring the highest standards of achievement and attainment for all children in all its schools, which consistently receive good inspection reports, examination results and positive school leaver destinations. There is a high demand for places in East Dunbartonshire schools.”
He continued, “The proposed changes would provide clarity on the Council’s arrangements if a school were to be oversubscribed and I would urge all parents with school age and pre-school age children to have their say by completing the online consultation by Friday 6 December.”
The consultation is available on the Council website: www.eastdunbarton.gov.uk/school admission and transfer arrangements primary secondary school
Following the six-week consultation period, the Council will share the findings with Education Scotland who will prepare a report on the proposed changes. The Council’s Education Committee will then make a decision on the proposed changes in January next year and Scottish Ministers will be notified if approval is given by Council.
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